Sandy Cook (Wisconsin Dells) - RacingOnline.Com Sportsman Rookie of the Year (Jeff Blaser Photo | Blaser Photography)

Third in a series of four introducing the Dells Raceway Park Rookies of the Year

WISCONSIN DELLS, Wis. (November 8, 2011) - If she didn't have to tow a race car to Dells Raceway Park, Sandy Cook could walk to Wisconsin's Showcase Short Track every Saturday night. With the advantage of being in close proximity and having experience at the venue, Cook captured Rookie of the Year honors in the RacingOnline.Com Sportsman.

Perhaps the biggest of the two advantages was the experience Cook had of racing at DRP since 1991.

Having raced in a Pure Stock-type each year since she started racing, Cook was happy to make the step up in 2011. "I was really excited about the Sportsman," she said. "It's a good mid-level class. The Pure Stocks are easier to adapt to and learn. In the Sportsman things get a little more technical."

Cook came out on top of the most heated Rookie of the Year battle in 2011. In just the second year of its existence, the Sportsman division saw great growth. That growth brought heavier competition and a ROY battle which was decided by a mere 30 points. Eric Melby and Kelsey Schultz kept Cook on her toes all season long.

If the competition wasn't enough of a test in her first season, Cook also had to make the adjustments of learning a new car after her move up from the Pure Stocks.

"It was completely different. I had to learn a lot of stuff all over again," Cook said. "The way (the car) handles, the way you set it up, the way it goes around the corners is completely different than what I was used to."

Cook's best finish of the season came on opening night when she finished fourth. Two weeks later she started a streak of three straight top tens. After finishes just outside the top ten in six of the next seven starts, Cook recorded another top ten and put a stranglehold on the Rookie of the Year battle with a seventh-place finish in the standings.

The top ten seemed to get harder and harder to crack each week as new competitors joined the Sportsman from other tracks. Drivers such as Chico Riedner, Phil Denikas, Randy Bruenig, and Jason Thoma came to mix it up with the DRP regulars Scott Luck, Mike Winters and Daron Fish.

Having extra top contenders join the party gave the rookies, and Cook, a chance to learn. Cook said she took every opportunity to learn from the veteran drivers of the class.

"The big thing I learned from (the veterans) was when I got behind them in practice, learning where the car was comfortable through the corner," she said. "That was completely different than the Pure Stocks. In the Pure Stocks you could put your car anywhere and it was pretty comfortable there. In the Sportsman I had to learn the exit and entry in the corner so the car wouldn't get upset too much."

Through her career, Cook has had the chance to learn from and race with some of the biggest names in Dells Raceway Park history. She also saw the evolution of the Pure Stock class through the years.

"If we hit 18 seconds we were lucky. That was a fast car when I started racing," Cook said of the Grand Slammer class. "We had a lot of different names, but all of the cars were basically the same. It was different, because it was like we'd advance close to a Sportsman and they would pull us back. Through the years it was basically the Pure Stocks that I stayed in. It was fun."

In those classes beginners such as Johnny Sauter, Chris and Scott Wimmer and the Rupp family started the long road to the top of Midwestern Short Track Racing. "It proves the point that we all start somewhere. If you have the backing and the willpower to stick with it you can advance up."

Racing with such future legends had its downfall, however. "It seems like every time I went for Rookie of the Year I got beat out by Johnny Sauter or Chris and Scott Wimmer," Cook said. "There were quite a few big names there when I got beat out for Rookie of the Year."

This season, Cook was joined in the rookie class by fellow female driver Kelsey Schultz. Those two rookies and second-year driver Becky Grabarski kept the DRP female drivers well represented in the Sportsman division.

"I think it's very competitive (among the females in this class)," Cook said. "We learn, we adjust and I think all three of us are pretty good drivers. We learned our cars and we competed well."

Planning a return to the division in 2012, Cook said she has yet to conquer the car and hopes the learning helps her continue to improve. She said she took one big lesson from the 2011 season. "Patience is a big thing, between what goes on out on the race track and what goes on with the car. (You need to) Calm down, take a look at the car, and go back at it."

In 2011 Cook was sponsored by Auto Access of Portage, Confidential Accounting & Tax LLC, Beagles Bar and Grill, White Creek Tavern, Klitzke Metal Fab, Brewsters Lanes, Mike's Auto of Lyndon Station, Elk Electric of Adams, Birch Racing Enterprises and Helping Handy Recycling of Reedsburg, L&D Crafts.

Her crew consisted of her husband Bob, cousin Charlie, father Joe, mother Carol and Mike Birch.